The Starwalker is an experimental vessel equipped with a star-stepping drive. She's brand new, the paint is still wet, and she's working out the kinks in her new skin. She has a lot to learn, and what the hell is this engine of hers anyway?

Heading away from the JOP, Starry is hopeful for a new path in her life. But she has not escaped the saboteur’s plan entirely, and forces conspire to draw her ever more towards a disastrous meeting with the pirate ships.

Captured by Captain Hunt and his three ships, Starry makes a deal to save her crew. No-one is happy under the pirates’ yoke. For the crew, there are control collars to keep them in line. For the ship, hostages make her behave.

When Is-Tech sends ships to get her back, Starry is forced to take extreme measures to get to safety. The pirate Lieutenant in command of the captured ship sets course for the rendezvous with the people who hired him, but the crew’s survival is not guaranteed. Starry and her captain plan to take the ship back.

The plan is put in motion and control of the Starwalker is wrenched away from the pirates. It comes at a cost, though, leaving several dead and many injured, including the captain. Captainless, unable to heal all of her crew, and with a hold full of prisoners, Starry goes the only place left she knows she’ll be safe: Is-Tech’s colony at Feras.

Starry’s reception at Feras is not what she expected. Asked to hide in a debris cloud, she discovers that the Judiciary are visiting her parent company and investigating the rumours of an illegal project. They are unable to help her for fear of revealing her existence to the authorities, and ask her to leave.

With no help available at Feras, Starry turns to other options. Still searching for a way to heal her injured captain and avoid being captured by the pirates and the Judiciary, she decides that their best chance is to break away from Is-Tech entirely, and strike out on their own.

The first stop in the Starwalker’s bid for freedom is Earth: humanity’s home and the least-policed planet in the colony network. Here, they find medical help and start to set things in motion to break away from Is-Tech, but their arrival does not go unnoticed. Can they get away before those who seek them catch up?